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Prophets

Transcript

This transcript was auto-generated using AI and may contain misspellings.
Bismillah ar-Rahman ar-Rahim, alhamdulillah, wassalatu wassalamu ala rasulillah, wa ala alihi wa sahbihi wa man wala So, a few things inshallah to start this lecture off for tonight. One of them is that this is a particular subject that has been a fascination of mine for a very long time, studying the life of Isa, the life of Jesus peace be upon him. And one of the things that I like to do with a prophet is similar to what we do with one of the companions of the prophet peace be upon him, which is to create first and foremost or to try to recreate an image of what the world looked like before that person came into it. So that you can more properly appreciate the role of that person in society. And one of the problems that we have as Muslims is that we often talk about these prophets only in the context of the theological debate. Not in the way that the prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam taught us when we were talking about Musa alayhi wasalam, Moses peace be upon him, nahnu awla bi Musa minkum, we love Musa alayhi wasalam, we are closer to Musa alayhi wasalam even more than you. Meaning we claim these prophets, we love these prophets, and if you truly love these prophets and claim these prophets, then you have to know more about Isa alayhi wasalam, more about Jesus peace be upon him, than our theological stance on Isa alayhi wasalam. We also have to gain an appreciation for the life and the mission of Isa alayhi wasalam. So a few things to start this off. Number one, the Quran calls us to begin our dialogue with other people on the basis of commonality and then get to the differences. That's a prophetic approach to da'wah. So you don't start with the difference, you work up to the difference. First you mentioned the commonality, ta'alo ila karimatin sawa, come to a common word between us and you. We worship only one God. Now let's talk about the implications of that tawhid, let's talk about the implications of that monotheism.
So Muslims have a very specific way of approaching dialogue with Jews and Muslims have a very specific way of approaching dialogue with Christians. How so? When it comes to Jewish people, you know, any interfaith dialogue that I've ever taken part in, as far as the creed is concerned, issues of theology, issues of how we view liturgy and how we view our shari'a versus halakha and halal and kosher and the idea of the covenant and tawhid and monotheism, Muslims and Jews will align on those issues even more than Jews and Christians will align on those issues. Meaning the theology of Islam and Judaism is closer than the theology of Judaism and Christianity. And closer than Islam and Christianity. And so often you'll find that when we talk things like scripture and covenants and law and the implications of tawhid and monotheism and what it means to be observant of those things, that will often have a lot of similarities between Muslims and Jews more so than Muslims and Christians or Jews and Christians even. And that's an admission that I've had many rabbis actually make as well. That this is a starting point for us when we're talking to Jewish people. Now a very specific connection between Muslims and Christians is some level of reverence and admiration for the person of Isa, the person of Jesus. It's special. And if you think about it, the fact that the two largest religious groups in the world both hold this man in awe and respect and admiration is special. And it's not something we should take for granted. It's something that surprises a lot of people. I actually did a podcast today with an evangelical Christian about what evangelicals can do better with Muslims. As you can imagine it was a very long podcast. It took a very long time.
About what evangelicals and Muslims have in common, evangelical Christians and what evangelicals could do better in how they do outreach towards the Muslim community. And you'd be shocked that many Christians have no idea, they have no clue that we have any regard whatsoever for Jesus peace be upon him. The idea that Isa Alayhi Salaam means anything to us is a shock to many Christians. Especially when you say, yeah we actually believe in the return of Jesus peace be upon him. We believe Isa Alayhi Salaam is coming back. It's like wait what? What are you talking about? Because the assumption is that we are Mohammedans just as they are Christians and so we replace Isa Alayhi Salaam with Muhammad Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam. And so all of the implications of what Jesus peace be upon him means to Christians, Muhammad Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam means to us which we know is not true. In fact a very easy look at that would be that Jesus peace be upon him is mentioned more by name in the Quran than Muhammad Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam. Jesus Alayhi Salaam, Isa Alayhi Salaam is mentioned 25 times, the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam mentioned by name 5 times. That doesn't mean that Isa Alayhi Salaam is greater than Muhammad Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam. That means that there is a heavy emphasis on the person of Isa Alayhi Salaam, the story of Isa Alayhi Salaam, the mission of Isa Alayhi Salaam, the message of Isa Alayhi Salaam. And Allah talks about Jesus peace be upon him in a very holistic way in the Quran. It's not just that he's not the begotten son of God. There's so much more to the story of Isa Alayhi Salaam in the Quran. And so as a starting point, when we reach out to our Christian neighbors, we have to start with the person of Christ. That look, we have something in common here. Now let's talk about what we have in common, then let's talk about where our paths now differ and what the implications of that are. That's the way that Allah taught us to reach out to different people, to reach out to different communities. And many of you attended the four week class that we had with Reverend Andy Stoker at First United Methodist,
four weeks where we talked about birth, life, crucifixion and resurrection over four weeks. And you could see what a loving dialogue looks like between Muslims and Christians about the person of Isa Alayhi Salaam without shying away from the differences, but instead stating them after stating the commonalities, after stating the commonalities. Then you establish that, look, Jesus, peace be upon him, to us is not just to win an argument. We don't just try to fit him into some broader picture. He is a central figure in our deen. His birth, his life and his return are central parts of the Quran and the Sunnah of the Prophet, peace be upon him. And they mean something to us. And I'll just point to you before now getting into the life of Isa Alayhi Salaam, I'll point you to the final moment of that class, that four week class that we had at First United Methodist. When I mentioned that Isa Alayhi Salaam, that in our tradition, according to a narration of Tirmidhi and others, that Jesus, peace be upon him, after he returns and after he dies, will be buried next to Muhammad Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam and Abu Bakr and Umar in Medina. And I said to the Christians in the church, I said, listen, I want you to just separate for a moment everything we believe about Jesus and everything you believe about Jesus and just think about what reverence this community must have for that man that they would say was spot in the most special place to us as Muslims for this man when he comes back, that he would be buried next to Muhammad Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam and the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, he said that the prophets are stepbrothers. They share a message. They are stepbrothers in that they share a message. And in that sharing of that message, they are close to each other. And so he says that I am the closest person.
The Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam says, I am the closest person to Isa Alayhi Salaam. So think about it. The Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, says, I am the closest person to the Prophet Jesus, peace be upon him, because there is no Nabi between me and him. There is no prophet that came between me and him. He was the last prophet before the last prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam. So let's talk about the life in the context of Isa Alayhi Salaam, of Jesus, peace be upon him. What does it look like in Palestine, in Judea, before Jesus, peace be upon him, comes? Well, you have to understand the political state first, because the politics influence the religion. So since Julius Caesar, the Romans practiced what's called syncretism, where you had client kingdoms, so semi-independent kingdoms. So people that ruled, but they really were ruled. Similar to our Muslim countries today. Client kingdoms. They don't actually have autonomy, right? That's kind of a joke, but it's not really a joke. So back then you had Herod, who's known as the king of the Jews, who operates under the Roman Empire, but it's a semi-independent kingdom. It still has to pay taxes. They still have to answer to a higher Roman authority. And that's something that causes a lot of hatred, a lot of resentment amongst the children of Israel, amongst Bani Israel, that we are still ruled from an outside power, that the temple has been destroyed, that we don't have autonomy. And this Herod, who rules from 37 BC up until 4 BCE, he's a successful king, but he's brutal. He targets political opponents, he murders anyone that he even senses threatens his rule. And he's really taking away the Jewish character, if you will, the Abrahamic character,
away from Jerusalem, away from Palestine, away from all these ideas of Tawheed and monotheism. He's removing all of that character. And instead he's really focused on turning Palestine into a tourist destination. So he's the one to introduce sculptures and statues in that area, even though these were people that believed in the oneness of God. And everything in that context becomes about to Bani Israel, who is the Messiah that's going to come and liberate us from this humiliation, from this rule. So the focus becomes on a Messiah that will liberate us from this domination that comes from outside. And the weight is for particularly Al-Masih ibn Dawud, not bin Dawud in Hajj and Umrah. The Messiah, the son of David, meaning a Messiah that is a child, a descendant of King David. And there are many Messiahs in the Bible. And Messiahs are not necessarily prophets. There are Messiahs that are kings, prophets, rabbis. In fact, there's a huge debate in Judaism about whether Dawud al-Islam is a prophet or just a king. So a Messiah means someone who's anointed. And when it's stripped of its religious implications, what the focus of that Messiah becomes is establishing the kingdom of God, establishing the rule of God on earth, particularly establishing the temple, the temple of Suleiman alayhi salam, reestablishing Jerusalem, upholding the Torah, ruling by that. And the specifications of this Messiah really speak to that. So he's a leader, he's well-oriented with the laws that are followed in Judaism. And Orthodox Jews hold the Messiah, the belief in a Messiah, as one of the 13 principles of faith.
So it's a big deal to believe in this Messiah, this messianic figure that comes back and that reestablishes the law and restores the dignity of the law and particularly restores the temple. He's a great military leader. He's someone that brings everyone to the worship of the God of Abraham. And he restores the temple. Now the emphasis in that time becomes on just the restoration of the temple. Who's going to come and restore the temple? And you have to understand in that context that there were many Messiahs, or many people that were looked at as being the potential Messiah. So the Messiah was never meant to be a child of God or someone that brings about this new concept of salvation or that dies for the sins of man. The Messiah was looked at as a powerful, authoritative figure that really brings the political rule back to Bani Israel. And because theology now was missing from them, deen was missing from them, spirituality was missing from them, corruption was rampant, the focus was all on that political power once again and that political autonomy. So for example, biblically speaking, the Persian King Cyrus, who is called a Messiah, he's called a Messiah because he defeated the Babylonians and he restored the temple way before Isa alayhi salam. And if you read in Psalm 137 verse 8, O Babylon, you will be destroyed, happy is the one who pays you back for what you have done to us. Move on to 137 verse 9, Blessed is the one who grabs your babies and smashes them against a rock. That's the passion of the restoration of the temple and a Messiah that comes back and gives us back our power. And because the Persian King Cyrus, who's not even from Bani Israel, defeats Babylon and restores the temple, he's given that title of a Messiah.
Judas Maccabeus, 160 years before Christ, leads a successful revolt against the Seleucid Empire of the time, purifies the temple of Jerusalem and that's where Hanukkah commemorates. Because again, the idea is the restoration of the temple, the restoration of autonomy, the ability to practice and to rule. It really gives a lot of context to a lot of what happens now as far as the arguments and the claims that are made to Jerusalem. In the time of Isa alayhi salam, there's a documentary by National Geographic called The First Jesus. Watch it. It's really, really interesting. It's fascinating. It's called The First Jesus. It's about a man by the name of Simon of Peria. He was only four years before the birth of Christ. He was one of the slaves of Herod and he's a strong man. He's very cunning. He burnt down Herod's palace in Jericho. He burnt down a lot of his other palaces. So he staged this huge revolt against Herod and a lot of people thought he was him. People thought that must be the Messiah because he was succeeding in doing a lot of things to Herod that had not been done by others, but he was caught and beheaded and that was the end of him. So there's this idea of any time a figure rises, you know, it's just like now by the way, every day on Twitter someone else claims to be the Messiah and the Mahdi. They tweet at us and say, I just want to let you know I'm the Messiah. I didn't know Jesus would sign up on Twitter. That would be his first actions. But I'm the Mahdi, I'm the Messiah. I met the Dhul Qarnayn recently as well. So people rise up, but in that situation, it's like who's it going to be? Who's it going to be? So there is a desperate wait that's on for a Messiah really for political reasons at that time. Now skip to Isa alayhi salam, Jesus peace be upon him. Ibn al-Qayyim rahim Allah says Bani Israel, the righteous amongst them was a small community, a small righteous practicing community.
That's where the family of Imran is, Zakariya alayhi salam, Maryam alayhi salam. This is a small group of people, under a hundred people according to Ibn al-Qayyim, who are still holding on to the original laws of the Torah and righteous and practicing it according to its greatest commands and that are full of faith. Maryam alayhi salam gives birth to Isa alayhi salam, a virgin birth of Jesus peace be upon him without any human intervention. And Muslims affirm the virgin birth and Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says that the creation of Jesus peace be upon him is like the creation of Adam alayhi salam. He said to it be and it was. Just like Adam had no mother or father, Isa alayhi salam was created without father. And so this was a testimony to the power of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and there's no need for any human intervention in the creation of the special child, Isa alayhi salam. And Isa alayhi salam, Maryam brings Isa alayhi salam to that area of the temple and she's holding Isa alayhi salam in her hands. She is scorned, she is mocked. Allah has honored this woman in the most beautiful of ways, an entire chapter in the Quran named after her. And it's really interesting, there's a chapter in the Quran named after her, there's not a chapter in the Quran named after Isa alayhi salam, after Jesus peace be upon him. Isa alayhi salam is mentioned 25 times, she's mentioned 30 times. And Allah says about her in surah Tahrim, كانت من القانتين that she was from the devout, using قانتين rather than قانتات which means she is a leader for men and women. She is the best of women created and she is an example for all of us to look towards as a person of devotion, a person of ibadah. She's not just a footnote in the story of Isa alayhi salam,
she's not just the chain between the dua of the wife of Imran and Isa alayhi salam. She herself is a woman deserving of much recognition and much love and much respect. Now she's holding Isa alayhi salam. And Isa alayhi salam speaks from the cradle. Jesus peace be upon him speaks from the cradle. And the first thing he says is, إني عبد الله He declares that he is here in servitude to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. By doing so he immediately clarifies he's not God and he clears the name of Maryam alayhi salam. So إني عبد الله So he is here as a servant of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. آتاني الكتاب و جعلني نبيا Then he speaks to the future. آتاني الكتاب, he will give me a book and he will make me into a prophet. So he's speaking to a future context. و جعلني مباركا أينما كنت And he made me blessed wherever I may be. Not just blessed in Jerusalem, not just blessed in Egypt, blessed wherever I may be in both comings. Both the first coming of Christ and the second coming of Christ. و ألصاني بالصلاة والزكاة ما دمت حيا And he has entrusted me with the prayer and with the almsgiving, with the zakah as long as he is alive. And Isa alayhi salam in both comings will uphold the law of the prophets before him. If you think about it, the first coming, Isa upholds the law of Moses. The second coming, Isa upholds the law of Muhammad alayhimu sallatu wa salam. So it's interesting because he comes with a mandate to uphold the laws that came before him as well. و برا بوالدتي ولم يجعلني جبارا شقيا And he has made me dutiful to my mother and he has not made me one who is wicked or one who brings about some sort of deprivation to the one he is born to.
And Ibn al-Qayyim says that one of the signs, it's very powerful, he says one of the signs of the wickedness of Bani Israel at that time was the disrespect to the parents. And he said that this is also one of the signs of the day of judgment. One of the interpretations of the hadith that الأمة تلد ربها that a woman would give birth to her own master is speaking to the idea of children treating their parents like slaves. So he said that that's sort of the end of the road for a people. When they reach a point where their parents are treated like slaves to the children, then you know that corruption has become entirely rampant amongst those people. So Isa alayhi salam upholds his duty to his mother that I have been sent. And it's really powerful because it speaks again to the virtue of Maryam. That one of the reasons for his sending was to honor his mother. Maryam was afraid that she would be cursed and would become looked at in a certain way and forsaken in history. But Isa alayhi salam will always testify to the honor of his mother Maryam alayhi salam and is a part of fulfilling that honor. So وَضَرًا بِوَارِدَتِي وَلَمْ يَجْعَلْنِي جَبَّارًا شَقِيًّا There are other prophets that came before Isa alayhi salam that raised the dead. There are other prophets, so you can actually read about some of the Old Testament prophets that raised the dead, that raised 700 people at a time. You can read about old prophets that cured the blind, that cured the lepers. But Isa alayhi salam is the first baby ever and the only prophet to ever speak from the cradle. So this is actually his first miracle. And it's interesting because the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam said that there are three times that a baby spoke from the cradle. And all three times that was to clear a slander. So it's actually to clear someone's name. The first one is the story of Isa alayhi salam when he spoke to clear his mother's name. The second one was the worshipper Juraij.
Juraij was a worshipper of Bani Israel who would worship Allah. And his mother called him to come and to serve her, to do some housework. And Juraij said, I'm too busy in my worship of Allah. She made dua to Allah, she supplicated to Allah that he would not die until he met the adulteress. He didn't know what that meant. Allah answered her dua, sent an adulteress to Juraij, holding a baby saying that, that's the father of this child. And then Allah inspired the baby to speak in defense of Juraij and say actually that's not the father. So Allah both answered the dua of the mother while still honoring the worship of that man. So it cleared a slander. The third time, and this is a hadith in Bukhari as I said from Abu Huraira. It's a very powerful story. The Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam said, a lady from Bani Israel, so all three times from the children of Israel. And the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam said, حَدِّثُوا عَن بَنِ إِسْرَائِيل فَإِنَّ فِيهِمُ الْعَجَاءِبِ Strange things used to happen to the children of Israel. So you should recount those stories. But there was a lady from Bani Israel that was nursing her child when a handsome rider passed by her. And as she's nursing her child and that handsome rider passed by her, she said, Oh Allah, make my child like that man. She looked at that man riding by, a stallion, a knight and said, Oh Allah, make my child like that man. The child spoke and said, اللهم لا تجعلني مثله Oh Allah, don't make me like that man. So then he went back to suckling from his mother. Then another, you know, this woman is, she's a slave, she's downtrodden, she is one of the outcasts of society. Another person walks by and this person is humiliated. He doesn't look as brave and courageous as the other rider.
He doesn't have those characteristics. And as this woman is holding this child of hers, and then the child sees a slave girl. So I'm sorry, it's not a man actually, this time it's a woman, sees a slave girl. The child, she sees that slave girl and she says, Oh Allah, don't make my child like that slave girl. Like, you know, for some reason, the child spoke and didn't want to be this great warrior or stallion. So don't make my child like that slave girl. And then the child said, Oh Allah, make me like her. Because she was a righteous woman. And when she asked why, the child responded, The one who was riding the knight is an arrogant man. He's one of the tyrants amongst the tyrants. And the slave girl, they blame her for stealing and committing adultery. But she is one of the righteous ones. So basically the child was clear, was expressing the difference between righteousness and wickedness that is completely free from any worldly attachment. So Isa Alayhi Salaam is the first of these three babies to clear the mother, the only prophet who has a miracle. As such, he faced the slander of his mother and himself. And the scholars say that every one of the prophets was slandered. But the slander of Isa Alayhi Salaam, the slander of Jesus Peace Be Upon Him, is the worst of slanders. Because they didn't just slander him, they slandered his mother as well with the worst types of slander. And it's really powerful because that same spot that Isa Alayhi Salaam gave that khutbah from, if you go to the dome of the rock today, which is part of Al-Aqsa compound, inscribed on the dome of the rock are these verses of Surah Maryam. Where Isa Alayhi Salaam will return once again,
where Jesus Peace Be Upon Him will return once again. And it says on the dome of the rock, اللهم صلي على رسولك وعبدك عيسى بن مريم O Allah, send your peace and blessings upon your prophet and servant, Jesus the son of Mary. So this still stands in that same spot, it is part of the inscription on the dome of the rock. Maryam was told as she gave birth to this child that he was the Messiah. That he was the Messiah that everyone was waiting for. اذ قالت الملائكة يا مريم يا مريم إن الله يبشرك بكلمة منه اسمه المسيح عيسى بن مريم وجيها في الدنيا والآخرة ومن المقربين that Allah gives her the glad tidings of Isa Alayhi Salaam اسمه المسيح عيسى بن مريم His name is the Messiah, Jesus the son of Mary. So Maryam is basically told that this child of yours is that child that poses a threat to the empire that people are waiting for but also poses a major threat, right? And that this is that awaited prophet, that awaited Messiah. And Allah mentioned روح منه meaning a soul from Allah. That doesn't mean that he's a part of Allah physically. Instead that is when Allah ascribe something to himself, Allah glorifies that thing just as when Allah سبحانه و تعالى mentions the Kaaba as بيت الله, the house of Allah, or other things. When Allah ascribe something to himself, it's assigning a particular virtue to it. So a particular soul from Allah سبحانه و تعالى. كلمة الله, the word of God. The word of God, the implication of that in Islam is that he was created from the word بِي, كُنْ فَيَكُونَ The name of Isa Alayhi Salaam, what language did Isa speak? Hebrew, but his first language was actually Aramaic.
The word of Isa Alayhi Salaam, the name of Isa Alayhi Salaam in Aramaic is Eesh. So it sounds very similar to Isa. I know that a lot of people will be surprised, but the letter J is less than 400 years old and it doesn't exist in Hebrew or in Aramaic. Okay, it's one of those, Jeem, an equivalent of Jeem doesn't exist, so there was no name Jesus until very recently. And it also wasn't Jesus, okay? It's a very specific name that was given. And Isa Alayhi Salaam did not speak with a British accent. And Isa Alayhi Salaam did not look like Mel Gibson or whoever it was that was portrayed in Passion of the Christ. I forget the name of the actor, who was struck by lightning twice by the way on the set. That's a different story. You can read about that, but the guy who played Jesus in Passion of the Christ got struck by lightning twice on the set. So he didn't look like that guy, just like Musa Alayhi Salaam doesn't look like Christian Bale, Batman or any of those things. His name was Esho. Aramaic is very similar to Arabic. In Arabic, it's Isa. Does anyone know what Arab Christians call him? Anybody? Yasur. So it's really interesting because Arab Christians call him Yasur, whereas we call him Isa. And there's a book that I'm not gonna go into detail with now from an author by the name of Dr. Jamaluddin Al-Sharqawi, who wrote a book called Yasur Am Isa in Arabic. And basically he talks about how Christian Arabs basically Arabized the Greek translation of Esho. Yeshua turned it into Yasur. But in the Arabic language, it would mean he perishes as opposed to switching it into Isa, which means he is saved. SubhanAllah, so it's a really interesting debate. I'm not gonna go into all the implications of it. It's a very interesting book. And a lot of the early Mufassireen, the early scholars when they talked about the names,
they tried their best to derive what his name actually meant. So you'll find for example Al-Qurtubi, who says that Musa Isa, he says that Sa is Shajarah, like tree. So Musa Alayhi Salaam was tied to the trunk of a tree and put into Ma, into water. So Musa and Isa Alayhi Salaam. Sa is again the tree. Isa was born under a tree and Isa refers to light. So a light came out of the womb of Maryam when he was born. And that's why he's Isa. All of these things are at the end of the day, Ijtihad. They're not factual. The scholars did their best to try to reason with it. But we can say pretty confidently that his name in Aramaic at least was Esho. Now why is Isa threatening just like Musa Alayhi Salaam? Because Herod had a dream. This is in the Gospel of Matthew by the way, in the New Testament as well. That Herod had a dream that a young man from Bethlehem was going to overthrow him. Similar to Fir'aun having the dream about Musa going to overthrow him. And like Musa Alayhi Salaam, Fir'aun decided, well hey, if a child was born that's gonna overthrow me, I might as well kill all the children. And so that's where you have the massacre of the innocents and that's where you have the fleeing of Isa Alayhi Salaam, of Maryam with Isa to Masr, to Egypt for some time. And then eventually she comes back from Egypt and she goes to Nazareth. Nazareth is about a hundred miles from Jerusalem. It's an interesting city in Palestine. It's poor, in the time of Isa Alayhi Salaam, it's poor, it's overpopulated, it's dirty, it has dirty water, lots of disease, and free of the Roman influence of Herod and a very religious place. So they were very strong to following the Torah.
And that's important because it's usually the poor people that follow the religion more seriously. So it wasn't like Jerusalem which was a tourist destination and had more Roman influence. It really stayed very true to rabbinic law and to the Torah and things of that sort. So Isa grew up in a very religious place. And his childhood speaks to that. So number one, Jesus peace be upon him was circumcised. Why is that significant? Because that shows that Maryam and Isa still saw themselves as being bound by the laws of Musa Alayhi Salaam, the law of the Torah, and practicing the law of Musa Alayhi Salaam. And when Jesus peace be upon him says, even is quoted in the New Testament as saying, I have not come to abrogate or replace the law of Moses, but to uphold it in its truest sense. Then that speaks to it from the very early childhood that they did not see themselves departing or forming a new religion, but instead continuing the tradition of Musa Alayhi Salaam. The history of Isa Alayhi Salaam would show that he went to local schools where they study the Torah, but he was more knowledgeable than the rabbis that were teaching the Torah. So he shocked the people by his knowledge of the Torah. He challenged the people with his knowledge of the Torah. The first miracle of Isa Alayhi Salaam in Islam is what? Speaking from the cradle. The first miracle of Isa Alayhi Salaam in Christianity does not include speaking from the cradle. If you remember that the Reverend Eddie Stoker was mentioning some of the Gospels that were left out, that mentioned some of the miracles that Islam mentions, but they're not considered part of the corpus of Gospels today. So the first miracle to Christians of Jesus peace be upon him is turning water into wine. It's not speaking from the cradle. Speaking from the cradle is unique to Islam in its most mainstream sense. Wahb ibn Munabbah mentions that the first miracle after that was,
وَأُنَبِئُكُم بِمَا تَأْكُلُونَ وَمَا تَدَّخِرُونَ فِى بُيُوتِكُمْ That I inform you of the things that you conceal and that which you eat and hide in your homes. And so, basically Isa Alayhi Salaam was given knowledge, he was able to tell people what they were hiding in their homes, he was able to tell people some of the secrets that they spoke amongst themselves. So you have this child that challenges people with the Torah, challenges the established rabbis and scholars of the Torah at a young age as a child. And he's also been given a miracle now of being able to say these things. And of course that made people very paranoid about him. What is his physical description? The most debated physical description and the most politicized physical description in history is the image of Isa Alayhi Salaam. And no other prophet is described by the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam physically more than Isa Alayhi Salaam. Why? Because it's important to distinguish him from the Antichrist, from Al-Masih Al-Dajjal. So when the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam described Isa Alayhi Salaam and his physical being, it was that we would know him from Al-Masih Al-Dajjal who also has this distinct physical look. And Qatada says, مَا بَعْثَ اللَّهُ نَبِيًا قَتْ إِلَى حَسْنَ الْوَجْحِ حَسْنَ الصَّوْتِ That Allah never sent a prophet except that they had a beautiful appearance and a beautiful voice. The Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam describes him as neither too tall nor too short. كَأَنَّهُ خَرَجَ مِن دِمَاسِ It was as if he just took a bath. If you saw him, his hair was long, it was as if pearls were falling from his hair. Beautiful skin and beautiful hair. And then this is where it gets interesting now. The one detail where there's difference in his description is his skin color. Alright, even in the Ahadith. So Ibn Abbas describes him as أَحْمَر which is having a reddish complexion.
Ibn Umar says, كَأَحْسَنِ مَا يُرْعَى مِنْ أُدْمِ الرِّجَالِ The most beautiful of what you would see of a person with dark skin. And then Umar radiAllahu anhu says, وَاللَّهِ مَا قَالَ لِعِيسَٰ أَحْمَرَ I swear the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam did not say Isa Islam had a reddish complexion, but rather he said that about Dajjal having a reddish complexion. So there was debate even amongst them about what Isa Islam's complexion. The end of it is what? The end of it is that it doesn't matter. So he was politicized obviously, wherever you go Jesus looks like in his imagery. He looks like that population. So I went to Xavier University where the first time, you know I went to Xavier for some time in New Orleans which is a historically black college. And the first time I saw a picture of Isa Islam, I thought it was Bob Marley. I was like why do they have a picture of Bob Marley on the wall? But then you go to churches and you see the European Jesus and it's just like when Megyn Kelly on Fox News a few years ago said, of course everyone knows Santa was white. You know, what's the real Isa Alayhi Salam? Well he definitely wasn't European. And that image was used to cause slaves to submit to say this is the image of your God and certainly used against them. And it is a heresy in the way that it was used against people obviously. But the Prophet Isa says that he looked the most like Urwa bin Mas'ud. And Urwa bin Mas'ud was the ambassador of Quraish Al-Hudaibiyya who accepted Islam eventually. And his description according to Imam Zarkani is that he was brown with a reddish complexion. So it kind of mixes the two hadiths in that regard. At the end of the day as Reverend Jeremiah Wright said, Jesus was a Palestinian. So we can just move on from that. We don't even have to think about it any further. Who was the Prophet first in Isa's time? The life of Isa Alayhi Salam first was actually following the da'wah of Yahya Alayhi Salam as a loyal follower to John. Okay, Yahya Alayhi Salam.
Yahya was born a few months before Isa Alayhi Salam. As you learn in the story of Zakariya being given the glad tidings and then shortly after Maryam being given the glad tidings. And the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam said in a hadith in Ibn Hibban, Al-Hasan wa Al-Husayn, Sayyidah shababi ahl al-jannah illa Yahya wa Isa. Al-Hasan wa Al-Husayn, may Allah be pleased with them, are the masters of the youth of paradise except for Yahya and Isa. And when the Prophet peace be upon him ascended on the night of Isra' wal-Mi'raj, he found them together, right? Even in the heavens together. So these were two brothers that are together. Isa Alayhi Salam supports the da'wah of Yahya Alayhi Salam. And Yahya Alayhi Salam is a person who has a story in and of itself, a fascinating story. But Yahya is really the scholar of the scripture, the scholar of the Torah. So at that point, Yahya is merely preaching the Torah, but he's preaching the Torah in a way that really threatens the authorities in Jerusalem. It really threatens the empire, it threatens the theology, it threatens the corruption. It's very unlikable to people in power. So Yahya is a person with a lot of compassion, but he's a person who Allah has given, as he mentions in the Qur'an, Al-Hukmah Sabiha, Allah gave him wisdom and authority early on in life, and he was the greatest scholar of the Torah. Isa supports him in that da'wah. And Yahya generally avoided Al-Quds, he avoided Jerusalem, because Jerusalem was where the Roman influence and the politics were at. So Yahya was, you know, if you look in history, Yahya is called the scholar in the wilderness, the rabbi in the wilderness, in Jewish tradition too, because he really stayed away from it all. Isa Alayhi Salam studies with him, follows him, emboldens him. And then Yahya was given the bishara, was given the glad tidings that Isa was the awaited Messiah, that Isa Alayhi Salam himself
is the awaited Messiah, and he pointed him out to the people as such. And Yahya then was murdered. Why was Yahya murdered? Yahya was murdered in brief because he refused to give a fatwa permitting incest to the son of Herod, Antipas. To basically, because he wanted, you know, they had their government scholars back then too, right? He wanted Yahya, who has authority, to tell him that it was okay for him to marry the wife of Philip, which would be incest. And Yahya rejected that. As a result of Yahya rejecting that, Yahya was assassinated, he was beheaded because he refused to give that fatwa. And, you know, first there was an attempt to seduce him, but he was Sayyidin wa Hasura. He was a... chief of his people, master. And at the same time he was Hasura, he was guarded in his chastity. So he didn't fall for the seduction of empire, money, or in the case where a woman was sent to him to seduce him, to give the ruling that would give legitimacy to that incest. He rejected all of that. As a result of that, he was martyred. And that's why some of the scholars mentioned that Allah gave him the name Yahya, that he lives. He was given life by the word of Allah in the womb of the wife of Zakariya, alayhi salam. And then once again, the shaheed, the martyr has eternal life. So Yahya, alayhi salam, was martyred. After that, Isa, alayhi salam, was given the prophethood, the mission to lead at the age of 30 years old. That's significant to understand that the first 30 years of Isa, alayhi salam, was supporting Yahya and his mission, alayhi salam. But now Isa, alayhi salam, was given the duty to lead as a messenger
and as a prophet of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. As scholars mentioned that Isa, alayhi salam, was sitting in al-Masjid al-Aqsa at the age of 30 and Jibreel, alayhi salam, filled the masjid with his light and said that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, inna Allah ya'muraka bi-iblaaghi risala that Allah commands you to now spread the message. That Isa, alayhi salam, stood up and said, Ya Bani Israel, u'budu Allah rabbi wa rabbakum. O children of Israel, worship my Lord and worship Allah, my Lord and your Lord. And this is where Allah mentions, Wa ataina Isa ibn Maryam al-Injeel hudan wa nooran wa musaddikal lima bayna yadayi minat Tawraa wa mawa'idatin lilmuttaqeen. So Allah describes giving Isa, alayhi salam, the gospel. Keep in mind, gospel here does not mean Matthew, Mark, Luke and John or the testimonies of those that came after. Gospel simply means here, bishara, a glad tidings. Right, a gospel means a bishara, a glad tidings. So that which was given to Isa, alayhi salam, as an addendum to the Tawraa, confirmed that which was in the Tawraa with slight modifications, reminders, and a light not contradicting its creed, but slight modifications, particularly to the innovations that came after the revelation of the Tawraa in its purest form. And the Prophet, salallahu alayhi wasalam, mentioned that Isa, alayhi salam, was given the Injeel or the Injeel was revealed on the 18th night of Ramadan. So Injeel here is in the singular, the glad tidings of Isa, alayhi salam. And again, the idea here was that it removed all of the prohibitions that the children of Israel brought upon themselves, relaxed some of the laws that were being abused to manipulate others. And you find here, and this is really an important point when you talk about the person of Isa, alayhi salam, that Isa, alayhi salam,
he was circumcised as a child, he followed the Tawraa, he was a scholar of the Tawraa, he upheld the mission of Yahya, alayhi salam. So he's coming with the same message at its core of Musa, alayhi salam. His prayer is described as standing, kneeling, falling on his face in prostration. So standing, ruku' and sujood in the Bible as it exists today. So you'll find him constantly falling on his face in prostration. And when the council of Nicaea, some of you took the class on Salman al-Farisi radhiAllahu anhu, the council of Nicaea forbade the kneeling and the prostration, but some of the Eastern churches refused. And so they maintained the sujood and the ruku' the kneeling and the prostration. And Salman saw the people in Persia, the Christians in Persia, still doing ruku' and sujood. So Isa is described still as retreating from the people, falling on his face in prayer, in sajda, in ruku', in bowing, in kneeling. And what was his da'wah like? Well, the maw'ila of Isa, the call of Jesus peace be upon him, was to people of conscience, was to people of piety and taqwa. That the message has been spoiled. ثُمَّ قَصَتْ قُلُوبُكُمْ مِن بَعْدِ ذَٰلِكَ فَهِيَ كَالْحِجَارَةِ أَوْ أَشَدُّ قَصْوَةً That the hearts have been hardened, and they have been hardened even more so than stone. So a lot of his da'wah, a lot of his call focused on softening the hearts. A lot of his examples were amthal, were parables as we see. And there are many parables of Isa alayhi salam that are narrated by the Prophet salAllahu alayhi wa sallam in authentic ahadith as well as some of the salaf, as well as some of the pious predecessors that focus on good character, that focus on piety, that focus on sincerity, that focus on the spirit of that which Musa alayhi salam brought rather than the law of what, the letter of the law that Musa alayhi salam brought.
Now what were his miracles? Isa is the last prophet of a line of prophets of Bani Israel. And Bani Israel was a nation of miracles. فِيهِمُ الْعَجَابِ Right? So you find prophets that raised the dead, you find prophets that cured people, you find prophets that did many of these incredible things. And here in the last prophet to Bani Israel, Allah combines those aja'ib in one man, combines those miracles in one man. So Allah says, وَرَسُولًا إِلَىٰ بَنِي إِسْرَائِيلٍ أَنِّي قَدْ جِئْتُكُمْ بِآيَةٍ مِنْ رَبِّكُمْ أَنِّي أَخْلُقُ لَكُمْ مِنَ طِينِكَ هَيْئَةِ طَيْرِ فَأَنْفُقُ فِيهِ فَيَكُونُ طَيْرًا بِإِذْنِ اللَّهِ He mentions, and make him a messenger to the children of Israel who will say, indeed I have come to you with a sign from your Lord. I designed for you from clay that which is like the form of a bird, then I breathe into it and it becomes, it becomes a flying bird by the permission of Allah. And I cure the blind and the leper and I give life to the dead, بِإِذْنِ اللَّهِ by the permission of Allah. And I inform you of that which you eat and you store in your homes, indeed in that is a sign for you if you are believers. So all of Isa's miracles are mentioned, بِإِذْنِ اللَّهِ by the permission of Allah. That's the first thing. The second thing, look at the sequence, it's profound. The first miracle that's mentioned is giving life to something that did not have life by the permission of Allah. Why is that important? Because remember now under Herod, there was Roman influence in the city of Jerusalem, so for the first time there you have sculptures. And what does Allah say on the Day of Judgment to sculpture makers? That they will be challenged to give life to that which they made. So when Isa molds something and blows into it and shows that it's only Allah that gives life, it's a challenge first to the entirety of people
that only Allah gives life. The second one which is healing is repairing life. So something had life but lost its quality, repairing life by the permission of Allah. The third one, giving life to the dead, بِإِذْنِ اللَّهِ by the permission of Allah. So something that lived and then died and giving life to it, بِإِذْنِ اللَّهِ. And who raised, you know, and you might see that and you go, how do you Muslims affirm all those miracles and still not believe He was God or the Son of God? Well, in the Bible, Elijah raised 700 people from the dead, entire nations from the dead, healed the blind, called for rain and stopped it, brought fire from the sky, but we don't say He's God. Right? All of these prophets operated with miracles that they attributed back to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala at the end of the day. So you have Isa alayhi salam in his miracles and then you have Isa alayhi salam with the mission that he brings of obviously bringing people back to tawheed, bringing them back to the law and calling them out on their corruption. So what does the corruption look like? Isa is a small group of disciples and what does the corruption look like? Number one, you have to understand the politics of Isa alayhi salam. Okay? There are three classes of people that you need to understand that exist in the time of Isa alayhi salam. Number one, you have a people called the seducers. These are the high class people that have secularized the Torah. They are attached to the temple only. They're the tax collectors. They steal money from the people. All they do is maintain the temple. They don't care about anything else from the religion. In fact, they even reject resurrection. So think about Quraysh with the Kaaba. It's a very appropriate example. They're corrupt. They make use of the temple of God. They have nothing to do with God or God's law aside from that. Then you have a group called the Pharisees. The Pharisees is the rabbinic continuation of Bani Israel.
So this is technically the class they would have belonged to. Those that were supposed to be upholding the integrity of the text and the law of the Torah. And what Isa alayhi salam saw is that those who belong to that tradition, many of them were abusing the law to exploit the poor and were defeating the purpose of the law in the process. So silent in the face of transgression, extremely selective in the application of the law only against poor people and people that could be taken advantage of. And that's when the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam said that Bani Israel used to use the law to only punish the weak. That at the end, with corruption, they use the law to only punish the weak. And so you find for example in Matthew 23, 23, Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! You practice your religion very well, but you have neglected the weightier matters of the law, justice and mercy and faith. Ibn al-Qayyim rahimahullah says that Isa alayhi salam chastised the ulama of Bani Israel, the scholars of Bani Israel. And he said to them, يَا عُلَمَٓا أَلْسُوءُ جَعَلْتُمُ الْجُنْيَا عَلَى رَؤُوسِكُمْ وَالْآخِرَةَ تَحْتَ أَقْدَامِكُمْ قَوْلُكُمْ شِفَاءٌ وَعَمَلُكُمْ دَاءٌ It's a beautiful saying. He said, O scholars of evil, you place the material world over your head, the hereafter under your feet. Your words are a cure, but your actions are a disease. Then you have the zealots, some of you might have seen the picture, the book by Reza Aslan called, Zealots. The zealots were the rebels against the Romans and the Jewish collaborators to the Romans and were staging a revolution to overthrow the Roman influence in all of its forms. And so there are some historians that say Jesus was a zealot, that he belonged to that group where he was anti-Roman and he was anti-corruption amongst Bani Israel. Can I have a five-minute extension, Shaykh? I'll wrap up inshaAllah ta'ala. So he was against both of these things, right?
And the best opinion on Isa alaihi salam is that he was not a zealot himself, but that Isa alaihi salam was not, that the zealots respected him because they knew he wasn't a hypocrite. So he was trying a different way, if you will, of rectifying the people, but he did not become violent himself against the Romans or against those from Bani Israel that collaborated with the Romans, but rather preached truly, اِنَّ اللَّهَ لَا يُغَيِّرُ مَا بِقَوْمٍ حَتَّى يُغَيِّرُ مَا بِأَنفُسِهِمْ that God does not change the condition of a people until they change the condition of themselves. So Isa alaihi salam, this Messiah that was supposed to come bring victory, political victory, said, actually we have to clean up our mess and victory only comes when we attach ourselves to the way that Allah has taught us to be attached to His words. That was not a friendly message, so that makes him an outcast and someone that is hated by all groups of people except for the righteous. And keep in mind, there were always righteous people from Bani Israel too. They had Ubad, they had worshippers, they had righteous people. But in this situation, now the wicked have overcome the righteous. And I want to read this because it's very powerful. In Matthew 23, 29-36 that, when Jesus came to Jerusalem, this is what He said, Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you build the tombs of the prophets and decorate the graves of the righteous. And you say, if we had lived in the days of our ancestors, we would not have taken part with them in the shedding of the blood of prophets. Thus you testify against yourselves that you are descendants of those who murdered the prophets. Fill up then the measure of your ancestors, snakes, brood of vipers. How can you escape being sentenced to hell? Therefore I send you prophets, sages, and scribes, some of whom you will kill and crucify, some of whom you flog in your synagogues and pursue from town to town, so that upon you may come all of the righteous blood shed on earth, and the blood of the righteous evil, to the blood of Zechariah, whom you murdered between the sanctuary and the altar.
Truly I tell you that this will come upon this generation. So Isa alayhi salam is very aggressive towards the keepers of the temple, the seducers, and those who are selectively applying the scripture, and the Romans as well. So everybody hates Jesus peace be upon him. And that image of Isa alayhi salam, the social being of Isa alayhi salam, some of you might have seen, they said GOP Jesus, they had a Jesus that rejects people from the border and turns away, someone comes to him for healing, and he says, well you don't have health insurance, so sorry I gotta send you away. The social element of Isa alayhi salam is what? He really hates corruption, comes into the temple, flips tables, right? Whips the people that are stealing the money of the people in the temple. Isa alayhi salam really really really upset people. So he was a man of mercy, and he preached goodness, but at the same time, he was a threat to the corruption that existed at the time. My 50 minutes just ended. So how do we understand Isa alayhi salam? Well now you understand why there's an attempt to kill him, why there's an attempt to crucify him, because he really doesn't benefit anyone in the political scheme of things. He's calling people to the purity of theology, and the purity of applying that theology, and upholding the law in spirit and letter, and really doesn't bring any material benefit to anybody. Right? So he can't be a Roman tool. He also is not someone that will apply the law selectively. He's extremely honest as a prophet of Allah. And so you have a small group of followers that stay with him, and this is where Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala saved Isa alayhi salam from the crucifixion, and this is where you find the story of the ma'idah, the story of the table spread, and the story of Isa alayhi salam being saved from those that wanted to kill him, and instead an image being placed there, or a person in his place. And there are narrations in that regard
of a man, one of the followers of the hawariyeen, of the disciples, who took on the image of Isa alayhi salam on the condition, on the ask that he will be joined with Isa alayhi salam in jannah. Either way, the likeness of Isa alayhi salam was placed on the cross, and that's what was crucified. Allah says, وَمَا قَتَلُوهُ وَمَا صَلَبُوهُ وَلَكِن شُبِّهَ لَهُمْ They did not kill him, they did not crucify him, rather it was made to appear as such that Allah would honor Isa alayhi salam. That when Isa called upon Allah, he would be honored and saved from the plot of those who wished him harm, and raised to the heavens until he would come back to establish justice on earth and the law of Allah as the Masih was always supposed to do. What's the last point here that's important? Who gets to claim Isa's story? There's a BBC documentary that came out a few years ago, probably a decade ago, called the hidden story of Jesus. And it really ruffled a lot of feathers because looking into Jesus from a historical perspective fit all of the descriptions of a prophet from Bani Israel who upheld the law, the theology, the creed, the same concepts of salvation as the prophets that came before him. And if you watch that documentary, it's fascinating because it basically talks about how everyone claimed Isa alayhi salam in a different way. So who gets to tell the story of Isa alayhi salam and who gets to attach themselves to him? Objectively, the problem is that when Isa alayhi salam left this earth, was raised to the heavens, there was no authority to establish an orthodox Christianity and authoritative understanding of Isa alayhi salam. I need you to just understand that point. That it was up to all of those that witnessed him on earth and those that were hearing of his story and then telling his story in different ways outside to tell the story the way they wanted to, there was no one to actually establish a uniform orthodox authoritative version of the life of Christ.
So he was everything from God to an imposter, to a false prophet. And that's the value of Abu Bakr to Muhammad salAllahu alayhi wa sallam. That when a prophet leaves this earth, there is an attempt always to switch him into many directions. And Ibn al-Qayyim rahim Allah says, imagine had Abu Bakr radhiAllahu anhu not shut down Musaylimah and all the attempts to take the message of the Prophet salAllahu alayhi wa sallam to a way it would not have been recognizable to us. So objectively, while Jesus is the central focus of Christianity, the founder of Christianity in any religion book is who? Is Paul. Because the version of Jesus that survived was not the version of the people around him, it was the version of Paul. Paul who lived after Isa alayhi salam, who never met Jesus peace be upon him, and who said he saw a vision of Jesus on his way to Damascus, and Jesus told him to preach in this way. And then went around the world spreading the gospel as he understood it from his own revelation of Christ. So Paul is the prophet here, right? The one who's receiving his own revelation, who preaches a gospel of Christ, who preaches a version of Christ. And you don't have to look too far in history to see that the disciples of Jesus peace be upon him did not appreciate what Paul was doing. That Paul fought when they heard about what Paul was doing, those that were leftovers from the actual followers of Christ, of Peter and others, they argued with Paul that this was not the Christianity of Christ, and you had other Christian groups that arose. So followers of Jesus was very fluid, there was no authoritative version. The version that became authoritative would be the version of Constantine, which is the Roman conception, which is Pauline Christianity. That does not mean it was the most accurate or authentic understanding of Isa alayhi salam. If you really want to dig into Isa alayhi salam's life, you got to go historically. And you have to see that
Islam poses a version of Isa alayhi salam that fulfills what the Messiah was supposed to be from a biblical conception. It's true to the Abrahamic concept of salvation, doesn't uproot salvation in the Abrahamic conception. It stays true to the creed, it stays true to the law of Musa alayhi salam with certain modifications, and it upholds his honor in the most beautiful and dignified of ways. So yes, we make a claim to Isa alayhi salam, we believe in Jesus peace be upon him, we love Jesus peace be upon him, we love Sheikh Yasser Brijas, and his phone. Book recommendation, so Yaqeen is going to be releasing a few papers inshaAllah the week of Christmas about the Muslim claim to Jesus, so please keep out a lookout for them. One of them is by an Oxford professor on the New Testament about the Muslim version of Jesus peace be upon him. And we also have a longer paper on Isa alayhi salam. And again, starting off with our commonalities with Christians because we can unite around the person of Isa alayhi salam, and then we can go into the theological differences. Lastly, a book recommendation, The Abrahamic Faiths. By Dr. Gerald Dirk. Dr. Gerald Dirk was a deacon of the Methodist Church from Harvard University, who became Muslim and wrote a book called The Abrahamic Faiths, which just beautifully ties it all together. And then there's a book called Was Jesus a Muslim? by Dr. Robert Schettinger, who's actually just a religion professor, who basically says that the Muslim interpretation of Christ's life actually stays true, most true to his person. And then inshAllah ta'ala we'll do the rest in Q&A. JazakumAllahu khayran. As-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh.
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